What Can I Do To Control And Prevent Dollar Spot Lawn Disease
Preventing Dollar Spot outbreaks can be much more effective than fighting the disease once it appears in your yard. For effective lawn disease control of Dollar Spot:
Water deeply, but infrequently. During times when the climate conditions promote the growth of Dollar Spot, be sure to water intermittently, but leave the sprinkler on for at least a couple of hours to simulate a deep, drenching rainfall.
How To Prevent Dollar Spot Fungus
Using preventative measures is the best way to fight off dollar spot fungus.
Water deeply, but infrequently. You can prevent dollar spot fungus by watering less frequently but for longer to make sure your grass roots are getting the water. This is essential to your grasss health anyway, so its a win-win.
Aerate your lawn. Dollar spots thrive on unhealthy lawns. Make sure your roots are getting plenty of air by aerating your lawn, which will make your grass stronger and provide less space for an invasive fungus or weed.
Fertilize. In the late springtime, apply nitrogen-fertilizer to make your grass as strong and healthy as possible. Dollar spot fungus frequently shows up in the early summer, so taking extra care of your lawn now can help prevent issues.
How To Identify Lawn Fungal Diseases
Signs your lawn may have a fungal disease:
- A wet-looking, slimy or greasy-looking lawn
- Powdery or threadlike coatings around and on grass blades
- Discolouration or distorted-looking blades of grass.
- Yellow, white or brown patches or rings, that grow in diameter.
- Grey, black, red or orange spots on the stems or blades of your lawn.
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How To Control Dollar Spot Disease
Adopting good lawn care practices is the best way to correct Dollar Spot, but if the outbreak is severe you might need help from a fungicide.
Look for contact fungicides containing the active ingredients chlorothalonil or iprodione, or systemic fungicides containing the active ingredient propiconazole.
Liquid fungicides, which require less measuring and mixing, are generally the easiest to use. They also dont usually need to be watered into the soil.
How To Treat Leaf Spot Disease
Leaf Spot Disease can be prevented by ensuring that you dont cut your grass too low. Long, thick-bladed grass is more resistant to damage to the grass blades. Adding nitrogen to soil during a leaf spot infection can entirely kill an area affected by leaf spot. Avoid overwatering infected grass and aerate the soil in order to promote water drainage during rainy conditions. Fungicides are an option for treating leaf spot, but they are only effective when applied to infected lawns during the diseases initial stage. If a fungicide is applied during the melting out stage, it will have little to no effect. Optimally, fungicides should be applied once in the early spring and again in late spring.
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How To Prevent Dollar Spot Disease
Your lawn care maintenance program should include regular mowing at the recommended height for your lawn type, aeration and thatch removal, application of fertiliser and deep, infrequent watering in the morning.
If youre doing all these things and Dollar Spot still appears, it might pay to start a preventative fungicide program using liquid copper.
An organic fungicide that can be used on your lawn, as well as in your fruit and vegetable garden, liquid copper is available from most hardware and garden centres.
It should be sprayed two weeks before problems usually start and can be repeated every seven to 10 days if needed.
Or you could choose a systemic fungicide containing the active ingredient propiconazole.
Systemic fungicides work from the inside out and will attack and kill the fungus on infected plants, whether symptoms are visible or not.
Theyre not washed off by rain and can keep working for longer than a contact fungicide up to 25 days or more. You can read our guide to turf maintenance and lawn care.
Theres also a guide to preventing and managing Dollar Spot and a range of other common lawn diseases.
Lawn Care Tips What Causes Dollar Spot And How To Control It From Overcoming Your Lawn
Infection by dollar spot appears as tan or straw-colored spots ranging in size from a quarter to that of a silver dollar sunken in the turf , which is how it gets its name. Occasionally, small cottony strings of the fungus can be seen growing from the diseased leaf blades. The fungus can spread if you walk on it and then walk to another part of your lawn, making dollar spot a serious problem if left untreated. Dollar spot can be more serious than it may first appear because the lawn disease kills the entire grass plant, often requiring reseeding.
Causes of Dollar Spot
- Poor Watering If you are not watering correctly, you may be weakening your thatch and creating a lovely breeding ground for dollar spot. If you water too much and the water does not go deep enough, it ends up creating an environment where the lawn is wet but the soil and the roots of the grass are dry. Dollar spot thrives in this type of setting.
- Grass Health Grass health is also an important part of improving dollar spot. Keeping your lawn in tiptop shape by watering it adequately, fertilizing it, and making sure it is kept at the proper height will keep your grass healthy, and healthy grass is much less prone to lawn diseases like dollar spot.
- Grass Type While a bit more difficult to cure, some types of grass are more prone to dollar spot than others. So if your area has been extremely prone to dollar spot it may be worth considering a different type of grass that is more resistant to the disease.
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Dollar Spot And Leaf Spot
May 15, 2015
Over the last week, dollar spot and leaf spot have popped up across the state of Iowa.
Dollar spot is usually considered an early to mid-summer disease and seems to be about a month ahead of last year. It is caused by the fungal organism Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. Most of the damage I have seen this spring has occurred on bentgrass greens, tees, and fairways. The symptoms of dollar spot on close mown turf are small, tan-colored spot equal to or smaller than 2.5 inches across. The name of Dollar Spot comes from the silver dollar-sized turf damage. Spots can be numerous and coalesce, making identification difficult. Dollar spot is most notable on nitrogen deficient turf. By increasing fertility, you can reduce future outbreaks. Dollar spot can spread by movement of mowers, equipment, water, wind, and people. It has a very wide range of activity. It is most active in temperatures between 60-90 degrees but can occur as long as nights are over 50 degrees . The wet weather/ and high humidity have created an ideal situation for early season dollar spot.
Pictures courtesy of Cody Freeman Green King Turf
Leaf spot is an Ascomycete fungi caused by Bipolaris spp. and/or Dreschslera spp. Cool, wet weather favors the disease. Leaf spot affects all turfgrass species used in the state of Iowa. A majority of the damage recorded so far has been on Kentucky bluegrass lawns and golf course roughs. It can also hit bentgrass, fine and tall fescue, and ryegrass.
Treating Dollar Spot Fungus
The good news is proper lawn maintenance will get rid of Dollar Spot Fungus in no time. The 2 things we need to target to treat this fungus are excess moisture and lack of nutrients.
Mowing your lawn to the right levels will help you prevent extra water from being held between the grass. It is recommended to keep your grass at around 3 inches for best results. The moderate height and not over watering with ensure that there is no excess moisture left behind for the Dollar Spot Fungus to thrive in.
Adding fertilizer to your lawn will take care of the lack of nutrients present in the grass by giving it the food it needs to stay healthy. Using a lawn fertilizer rich in Nitrogen is the best option in this case. If you are looking for a recommendation of a good fertilizer for this scenario check out the following Lawn Restore Fertilizer on Amazon.
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How To Control Blackspot
The best approach to control Black Spot in your lawn is through a proper lawn care maintenance routine.
Proper lawn care maintenance ensures a healthy lawn and includes adequate fertiliser, reduction of thatch levels, aeration, morning watering that is deep and infrequent and mowing at regular intervals.
Alternately if the above lawn care maintenance procedures do not work, fungicides with the Common Active Ingredient Iprodione should be used.
myhomeTURF recommends using Indigo Voltar an effective Broad Spectrum Fungicide that can be purchased through our myhomeTURF online store.
Continue To Monitor For Fungal Diseases
After treating the problem, continue to monitor your turf for signs of fungal infections. Some fungal diseases are seasonal and may return the following year, requiring you to repeat the treatment. In the meantime, maintain correct mowing techniques.
If possible, collect grass clippings as you mow. Collecting clippings minimises the spread of fungal diseases, as most types of fungi are easily distributed throughout a lawn. Avoiding excess foot traffic also cuts down on the spread of fungal diseases.
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How To Treat Summer Patch Lawn Disease
Prevent summer patch by not cutting more than 2/3 the length of grass when you mow. Taking that much length from grass that has been left to grow long is the cause most associated with the cause of this disease. Known as scalping, the practice of mowing too closely weakens the grass and makes it vulnerable to infection. Avoid adding nitrogen-based fertilizer to your soil in summer. Watering lightly and frequently in hot weather is another practice to avoid as it dampens the shallow areas where magnaporthe poae resides, helping promote its development. Soil aeration is important to prevent thatch buildup and improve drainage. Because summer patch can cause massive damage in a short time, fungicides are often necessary to combat its spread.
Is It Possible To Clear Your Lawn Pets Dollar Spot Fungus
Its not a question of if your pet will get a yeast infection, but when. It only takes one bite of the wrong pizza, one casual brush against a dirty floor, or a lick off your cats paw to set your pet up for an infection. The best thing to do is preventative treatment.
In order to treat the issue, theyll probably need an anti-fungal medication and possibly something for pain relief as well.
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What Is Dollar Spot Lawn Disease
Dollar spot infection is caused by the fungus Clarireedia jacksonii, known formerly as Sclerotinia homoecarpa. Regardless of its Latin name, you dont want to see this lawn disease show up on your turf. Dollar spot causes straw-colored grass to appear patches that are about the size of a silver dollar sunken into the turf. The patches tend to appear light tan or straw-colored but may also be white in appearance. As this lawn disease progresses, it can affect the entire grass plant down to the soil, or rather, the entire leaf blade. The good news is that although the lawn disease kills grass leaves, it does not affect roots or soils.
The disease starts in the middle of the grass blade with an hourglass-shaped lesion, with dark bands at the margins between good and bad. As the disease damages the leaf tissue, it gets weak in the affected area and bends at that point which professionals describe as flagging.
If left unchecked, the individual spots that are about the size of a silver dollar will expand and begin to bleed into one another, causing large areas of the turf to be affected. The diseased leaf blades can die, making the lawn appear quite ill and unsightly.
Damage Symptoms: How You Can Spot It
There are two easy ways to identify dollar spot lawn disease on turf. The first is the shape and size of the damaged areas. The individual spots are usually very circular and distinct, and grow to only a few inches in diameter. Another symptom thats easy to recognize are the lesions on the individual grass blades. Dollar spot lawn disease causes an hour-glass shaped band to form across the width of the grass blade. This band is light tan and has a reddish-brown edge on the top and bottom. Being a very thorough fungus, dollar spot kills the entire grass plant. After a serious bout with dollar spot, lawn renovation or reseeding will almost always be required once the disease is brought under control.
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How To Id Lawn Insect And Lawn Fungus Problems
How do you know if the brown spots in your lawn are caused by the heat or something else ?
Are the brown grass blades mixed in with the green grass blades in no particular pattern almost like the lawn is dry, yet you have been getting rainfall? This could be an insect problem or your lawn could be starving if it has been more than a few months since the last feeding. One clue to look for with insects is the presence of lawn moths when you mow. The moths do not damage your lawn, however they lay eggs for sod webworm, cutworm and other lawn damaging insects. Chinchbug damage also looks like the grass in this photo. Solution: Feed and protect your lawn with an application of Turf Builder with SummerGuard. Be sure to water after spreading. If your lawn does not need feeding, apply Ortho Bug B Gon MAX.
Are the brown spots following a particular pattern such as a circle? Within the circle the problem may start with some of the grass blades turning brown with spots on them. There are a range of lawn fungus problems like dollar spot, brown patch, red thread and summer patch that show up as circular patches in your lawn. These problems can crop up when you are getting higher temps during day and night and more rain and humidity. Solution: Treat your lawn with Scotts Lawn Fungus Control.
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How To Control Anthracnose
Proper lawn care maintenance which includes adequate fertiliser, reduction of thatch levels, aeration, morning watering that is deep and infrequent and mowing at regular intervals is recommended to prevent Anthracnose.
Alternately if the above lawn care maintenance procedures do not work, common remedies such as Neem oil, Bacillus subtilis, Sulfur Dust Fungicides, Liquid Copper Fungicides or Fungicides with the Common Active Ingredient Penthiopyrad please first seek advice from your Local Garden Centre.
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How To Control Fairy Rings In Your Lawn
Proper lawn care maintenance which includes adequate fertiliser, reduction of thatch levels, aeration, morning watering that is deep and infrequent and mowing at regular intervals is recommended to prevent Fairy Rings.
If lawn maintenance practices do not work contact your Local Garden Centre however no chemical control options are currently registered.
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What Causes Dollar Spot Disease
There are three common reasons why dollar spot disease occurs. Letâs take a look at them.
1. Wet Conditions
This fungus likes wet and humid conditions. A combination of naturally-occurring dew and wet weather, as well as late-day irrigation and over-watering, are common factors in the development of this fungus. The longer water stays on your lawn, the more likely it is to develop this fungus.
2. Lacking Lawn Food
No lawn can be healthy without sufficient nutrients, which is why lawn fertilization is so important. When grass doesnât have sufficient nutrients it is more likely to be affected by dollar spot fungus, simply because it is weak.
3. Mowing Too Close
Finally, remember not to mow your lawn too close. A short lawn, with blades under three inches in length, is more likely to be affected by dollar spot fungus.
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Dollar Spot Vs Brown Patch: Comparing 2 Lawn Diseases In Memphis
Few things are more frustrating than finding patches of discoloration on a lawn that seemed to be healthy one dayand appeared to turn overnight. Unfortunately, lawn diseases in Memphis tend to show up that way. Like a sneaky villain, they creep into a healthy lawn and quickly wreak their havoc.
Thats why its important to get these types of problems under control quickly.
First and foremost, you must make the proper diagnosis. There are many lawn diseases in Memphis, many of which are caused by lawn fungus. Two of the ones that we see most often are Dollar Spot lawn disease and Brown Patch lawn disease.
In this article, well compare these two common lawn diseases, including what you can look for and how you can deal with them. Although they both have their own identifying characteristics, we do find that homeowners mix them up. Thats to be expected as you certainly shouldnt have to get a degree in agronomy to be able to have a healthy lawn . Well help provide some education that will give you a better sense of what you might be dealing with and how to address it.
Discoloration Not Caused By Lawn Diseases In Memphis
Of course, sometimes homeowners call us and are pretty certain that they have a lawn fungus problem when in actuality, it turns out to be something else. Before we dive into how to treat lawn disease, lets quickly talk about other potential causes of spots on the lawn.
As you can see, there are many different reasons why your lawn might be going through a period of discoloration and its not necessarily a lawn fungus issue. This is one of the key benefits of working with a lawn care professional that can help you to make the proper diagnosis.
At Master Lawn, we even encourage homeowners to text us photos of their lawn in between our visits if there is something going on. We understand that with certain issues, particularly disease and pests, time can be of the essence. If it does turn out to be something like Brown Patch lawn disease or Dollar Spot lawn disease, we want to help you act quickly.
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